Recent from talks
Bava Batra
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Bava Batra
Bava Batra (also Baba Batra; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: בָּבָא בַּתְרָא, romanized: bāvā baṯrā, lit. 'The Last Gate') is the third of the three Talmudic tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law. Originally it, together with Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia, formed a single tractate called Nezikin (torts or damages).
Unlike Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia, this tractate is not the exposition of a certain passage in the Torah.
The Mishnah is divided into ten chapters, as follows:
Chapter 1: Joint owners of property may dissolve a partnership and divide the property, if the parties consent, except in the case regarding a volume of the Bible, which may not be divided (literally, torn in half) under any circumstances. Things which lose their value on division can only be divided if all the owners consent. Except in these cases, either party has a right to insist on a division of the property. In the case where a courtyard (hatzer) is owned by several partners, each of them has to contribute to the usual requirements of a court; if they divide it, a partition wall or fence must be erected in accordance with certain rules. The previous partners are now neighbors; and their relations are described in chapter 2.
A courtyard less than 8 amot (approx. 18 inches × 8 = 12ft) can only be divided if both partners agree to the division. Depending on how the Mishnah is read, this division is either with a low row of wooden pegs (which shows that visual trespass is not damaging) or a four amot (approx. 72 inches) high stone wall (which shows that visual trespass is considered damaging). If both partners agree to the stone wall, it is built in the middle. The lesson taught here is that if one partner owns more property, he does not need to contribute more space for the stones of the wall.
Chapter 2: The fundamental rule about neighboring property is that the owner of the adjoining property must avoid everything that might prove a nuisance to the neighbor, or become a source of injury to the neighbor's property. "The noise of a smith's hammer, of a mill, or of children in school, is not to be considered a nuisance" (2:3). Disputes as regards to injury or nuisance are generally settled by the fact of prior or established rights (Chazakah).
Chapter 3: Chazakah (presumptive right, possession de facto) is proved by the undisturbed exercise of such a right during a certain period (three years), such as the usucaption of property, in spite of the presence of the rival claimant in the same "land". In this respect Israel was divided into three "lands" or districts (3: 2): Judah, Galilee, and Perea.
In the transfer of a house, a court, a winepress, a bath, a township, or a field, much depends on the meaning of these terms, which are fully defined in chapter 4. For example: "He that sells an olive press has ipso facto sold therewith the lower millstone (Hebrew: ים) and the upper grinding-stone (Hebrew: ממל), etc." In the Mishnah similar definitions are given of a boat, a cart, a yoke of oxen, and the like (5:1–5). In selling the produce of the field care must be taken that there be no deviation from the conditions of the sale as regards quality and quantity, lest the sale be declared invalid (mekach ta'ut, 5:6–6:3). Various problems resulting from the sale of property, of a house, or of a piece of land are discussed in the Mishnah (6:4–7); among them the sale of land for a burial ground for a family, or the undertaking by a workman to prepare it (6:8). The burial-place is described as follows: "A cave hewn out in a rock 4 cubits broad and 6 cubits long (or, according to R. Simeon, 6 by 8 cubits); along the length of the cave on each side there are three graves of 4 cubits long, 1 cubit broad, and 7 handbreadths ('ṭefaḥim') high; and 2 such graves in the back of the cave. In front of the cave was the court ('hatzer') 6 by 6 cubits, so as to afford sufficient room for the bier and the persons attending the burial."
Hub AI
Bava Batra AI simulator
(@Bava Batra_simulator)
Bava Batra
Bava Batra (also Baba Batra; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: בָּבָא בַּתְרָא, romanized: bāvā baṯrā, lit. 'The Last Gate') is the third of the three Talmudic tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law. Originally it, together with Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia, formed a single tractate called Nezikin (torts or damages).
Unlike Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia, this tractate is not the exposition of a certain passage in the Torah.
The Mishnah is divided into ten chapters, as follows:
Chapter 1: Joint owners of property may dissolve a partnership and divide the property, if the parties consent, except in the case regarding a volume of the Bible, which may not be divided (literally, torn in half) under any circumstances. Things which lose their value on division can only be divided if all the owners consent. Except in these cases, either party has a right to insist on a division of the property. In the case where a courtyard (hatzer) is owned by several partners, each of them has to contribute to the usual requirements of a court; if they divide it, a partition wall or fence must be erected in accordance with certain rules. The previous partners are now neighbors; and their relations are described in chapter 2.
A courtyard less than 8 amot (approx. 18 inches × 8 = 12ft) can only be divided if both partners agree to the division. Depending on how the Mishnah is read, this division is either with a low row of wooden pegs (which shows that visual trespass is not damaging) or a four amot (approx. 72 inches) high stone wall (which shows that visual trespass is considered damaging). If both partners agree to the stone wall, it is built in the middle. The lesson taught here is that if one partner owns more property, he does not need to contribute more space for the stones of the wall.
Chapter 2: The fundamental rule about neighboring property is that the owner of the adjoining property must avoid everything that might prove a nuisance to the neighbor, or become a source of injury to the neighbor's property. "The noise of a smith's hammer, of a mill, or of children in school, is not to be considered a nuisance" (2:3). Disputes as regards to injury or nuisance are generally settled by the fact of prior or established rights (Chazakah).
Chapter 3: Chazakah (presumptive right, possession de facto) is proved by the undisturbed exercise of such a right during a certain period (three years), such as the usucaption of property, in spite of the presence of the rival claimant in the same "land". In this respect Israel was divided into three "lands" or districts (3: 2): Judah, Galilee, and Perea.
In the transfer of a house, a court, a winepress, a bath, a township, or a field, much depends on the meaning of these terms, which are fully defined in chapter 4. For example: "He that sells an olive press has ipso facto sold therewith the lower millstone (Hebrew: ים) and the upper grinding-stone (Hebrew: ממל), etc." In the Mishnah similar definitions are given of a boat, a cart, a yoke of oxen, and the like (5:1–5). In selling the produce of the field care must be taken that there be no deviation from the conditions of the sale as regards quality and quantity, lest the sale be declared invalid (mekach ta'ut, 5:6–6:3). Various problems resulting from the sale of property, of a house, or of a piece of land are discussed in the Mishnah (6:4–7); among them the sale of land for a burial ground for a family, or the undertaking by a workman to prepare it (6:8). The burial-place is described as follows: "A cave hewn out in a rock 4 cubits broad and 6 cubits long (or, according to R. Simeon, 6 by 8 cubits); along the length of the cave on each side there are three graves of 4 cubits long, 1 cubit broad, and 7 handbreadths ('ṭefaḥim') high; and 2 such graves in the back of the cave. In front of the cave was the court ('hatzer') 6 by 6 cubits, so as to afford sufficient room for the bier and the persons attending the burial."
Recent media